Green Fleet

NHTSA Delays EV Warning Noise Requirements

December 1, 2015
• by Staff

Photo via Wikipedia.

The deadline for requiring hybrids and battery-electric vehicles to produce pedestrian-alerting noises to warn sight-impaired pedestrians and bicyclists has been pushed back until March, Reuters is reporting.

Mark Rosekind of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in July that the regulation would be finalized by November, but the agency now says they will not be able to meet that deadline.

Congress had first passed a law in 2010 instructing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to issue regulations requiring "quiet cars" to make enough noise to alert those around that a vehicle was in the vicinity.

The proposal called for vehicles to produce sounds above background noises, at speeds up to 18.6 mph. Each vehicle of the same make and model would reportedly have to emit the same sound or sounds.

The NHTSA estimates the odds of a hybrid vehicle being involved in a pedestrian crash are 19% higher than gasoline-powered vehicle collisions.

The new vehicles will annually consume approximately 36.8 million gallons of clean propane autogas, and many will be displacing fuels with higher emissions like gasoline and diesel, according to the Propane Education & Research Council.